


Ring On The Left

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-07-30
Updated: 2005-07-30
Packaged: 2019-05-30 19:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15103727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Bored with being at the office, Toby seeks out Josh at Campaign Headquarters and learns something surprising.





	Ring On The Left

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

   


 

**Ring On The Left**

**by: PamalaSt**

**Character(s):** Josh, Toby  
**Pairing(s):** Josh/Donna  
**Category(s):** Humor  
**Rating:** CHILD  
**Summary:** Bored with being at the office, Toby seeks out Josh at Campaign Headquarters and learns something surprising.  
**Author's Note:** I was contemplating the possibility that TPTB might pull the old it all happened off camera and you missed it JD resolution and this was what came to mind.They had better NOT even try anything like this that would rob us of what we've waited YEARS to see. 

I knew it was clearly time for me to get out of the office when I realized if I'd heard the word 'leak' one more time I was going to either tear out what little hair I had left or throttle the nearest person - regardless of who they were. 

As a rule I like to go and see my kids for a moment of Zen in times like these but this time I decided to seek out Josh. 

He was in town, at campaign headquarters and, like a punished child forced to stay inside and watch the other boys play, I was eager to see how things were going over there. 

The place was bustling. No question, with just six weeks left they had found their stride, and were building confidence and momentum all over the place. 

Even with all the activity around, a pretty young volunteer was on me as soon as I stepped through the door. She dutifully began rambling on about this and that. As I tried to convince her I had not turned up to volunteer I caught sight of him on the other side of the room. 

I sidestepped the annoyingly helpful volunteer and began making my way across the room. 

"Josh!" 

He looked up from the papers he'd been shuffling in his hands and smiled. 

"Toby!" 

As I crossed the remaining distance, I was struck by his appearance. Forget the campaign's confidence and momentum, it was clear with just one glance that it was him that had found his stride and it had spread to everyone and everything in the room. 

An air of strength and determination was written all over him and there was no question, even with just a look from across the room, that Josh Lyman was in control and anyone or anything standing in his way had better move it or lose it. 

For the first time I began to entertain the thought that he may actually pull this election out by the skin of his teeth. Of course he may actually do one hell of a lot better than that but I needed the skin of his teeth bit to cling to when his I told you so's started rolling in. 

Watching him, and listening as he barked out a few orders to those around him before making his way to me, I saw Leo in Josh for the first time. Twenty years younger but much the same man in the task. 

I started to believe that Josh really was the only man for the job. 

"Let's go to the office, Toby. I'll never get a minute to talk without interruptions out here." 

As soon as we moved into the office, he buzzed someone on the outside, asked them to hold calls for 15 minutes, and motioned for me to have a seat. 

I couldn't bring myself to sit as he bounced around the room, shuffling more papers and making cryptic notes on a dry erase board, so I stood. 

His energy was infectious and I was very much in need of a boost so I opted to stand leaning against the desk as we talked. What we discussed soon became a backdrop to something more pressing that had come to my attention. 

More correctly, something that had caught my eye. 

It only took a few minutes to pick up on the fact he was sporting a ring on his left hand. 

Tradition, of course, dictated what a ring on that finger meant but the more cynical side of me began groping for other possibilities. 

Perhaps Santos was one of the collegiate pride kind of guys and Josh had bought into the notion and dug out an old school ring? 

Granted all I could see was gold band, but those damn things were so heavy, likely why no one wore them, that they always seemed to work their way round so that all that could be seen was the band at the back anyway. As we talked I could see it better. 

Simple gold all the way around. 

He was looking at me obviously waiting for an answer to something I never heard him ask so, being a man of serious words and direct to a fault, I went straight for the throat. "Josh, are you wearing a wedding band?" 

"I am." 

He had this goofy grin on his face as he began twisting the ring around on his finger, an activity men engage in when they first receive them as well as when they are forced to remove them against their wishes. 

While I don't say a word in response, the questions must be written on my face, because he quickly starts in explaining. 

"You wore one for along time, Toby." 

"Yeah, well, I was married, and then divorced." 

For the first time since I've seen him he stops the persistent movement and looks me in the eye. The abrupt end to the cloud of nervous energy he's been bouncing around in since the moment I laid eyes on him is shocking, and I have the presence of mind to brace myself for something. 

"Well, this is the same thing, without the divorce part." 

"You're married?" 

I can't help saying it one hell of lot louder than I'd intended to, and am grateful for the closed door shielding the staffers from my less than subtle shock. 

"Josh, you got married?" 

"Yep." 

He's bouncing again. It's Irritating to watch but, with the success of the campaign and the addition of a little woman, at least his extreme energy level is understandable to me now. 

"I don't recall getting a wedding invitation?" 

"No wedding... Justice of the Peace." 

He's got that goofy grin going again and has started shuffling papers around the desk as if it's suddenly business as usual. 

"It happened fast, Toby, no time to plan a big wedding." 

Just as I've gotten up the nerve to inquire as to the name of the lucky lady in question, the intercom sounds. 'You have a call Mr. Lyman.' 

"Take a message, Sandy, I need a few more minutes here." 

"I know I wasn't supposed to interrupt but it's Mrs. Lyman on line two and I knew you'd want this call." 

There is a teasing tone in his assistant's voice and I can tell right away that his staff finds the sudden addition of a Mrs. Lyman a far less shocking and infinitely more amusing turn of events than I do at the moment. 

"Take it." 

I gesture at the phone, quickly turning away, looking through the window to the campaign activity outside, and giving him all the privacy my close proximity will allow. 

On the other side of the glass a young, pretty woman in a short skirt and pleasingly tight sweater passes by, and I begin to entertain the notion that possibly Josh has, in a campaign exhausted stupor, lost his senses and married one of those hot body, twenty years his junior, groupies of his. 

"Toby saw the ring right away." 

Toby? Obviously she's someone who knows who I am so that rules out any of the Lyman Ho's. 

"I'm not going to take it off... As old as I am and never married everyone was starting to assume I was gay... I'm wearing it, don't care who notices, and you'll have to live with it." 

I listen to the one sided conversation but don't turn around, doing what little I can to give him privacy and still gather the needed information to get to the bottom of the ' Who married Josh Lyman mystery?' 

"Dirty old man!" 

At the sound of the words I'm puzzled if the accusation hanging in the air is directed at me or himself. 

He delivers the answer into the phone. 

"Nothing... Toby's just standing here watching one of the young volunteers in a tight sweater walk back and forth in front of the window and I had to call him on it is all... " 

Hmmmm, if he called me a dirty old man I guess we can safely rule out the child bride theory. 

I also can't imagine Josh calling me a dirty old man to a stranger so it looks like this it's definitely someone who knows me as a friend. 

"She wants to say hello, Toby." 

I turn slowly, and take the phone reluctantly. 

Knowing the voice on the other end is one I'll likely recognize but also knowing that the only woman I've ever imagined married to Josh hasn't given him the time of day for the better part of a year I brace myself for what could either be an annoying lisp or teeth jarring nasal tones' 

As the voice coming through the receiver drifts into my ear and my brain begin to register what I'm hearing, he starts in with that goofy ass smile again. 

I'm sure it's an exact mirror of my own as I say: 

"Hey, Donna." 


End file.
